The present invention relates to a camera module and an imaging apparatus which are to be mounted, for example, on a cellular phone, and in particular, to a camera module and the like suitable to be downsized.
Recently, a camera system is also mounted on a cellular phone and the like. In such camera system, there is broadly used a camera module in which an image of an object is focused onto an image sensor by use of a microlens.
As the cellular phone is reduced in size, it is further required to downsize the camera module.
As a technique associated with a camera module which is downsized and which has high focusing precision, there has been known a conventional technique corresponding to JP-A-2003-51973.
The technique described in JP-A-2003-51973 employs a configuration including a lens, a body tube to support the lens, an image sensor chip which produces by its sensor unit an image by using light incident via the lens thereto and which resultantly outputs an image signal, and a printed circuit board including a window section. The body tube is fixed onto a surface of the printed circuit board. The image sensor chip is fixed onto a surface of the printed circuit board opposing to the surface on which the body tube is fixed such that the sensor unit is placed in the window section of the printed circuit board.
To make the camera module smaller, it is effective that the body tube to support the lens and a pedestal mount to house the imaging element thereon are configured in one package to thereby minimize the space not efficiently used. When adhesive is employed to fixedly install the constituent parts, each gap secured between the parts is reduced to the maximum extent for the downsizing of the camera module. In the conventional camera module, an excessive portion of the adhesive enters such gap. However, since the gap is reduced due to the downsizing of the camera module, the excessive portion of the adhesive is an important problem to be solved.